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How to make Leaving Cert Chemistry fun?

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  • 14-09-2014 6:03pm
    #1
    Corkgirl18
    Closed Accounts Posts: 894 ✭✭✭


    I'm currently doing my PDE year (1 year program) and I'm teaching 1st year Science, TY maths and 5th year Chemistry.

    The 1st years are lovely to teach and its so easy to make lessons interactive and fun. My problem is how to do the same with the 5th years? I've only ever taught 1st years up to now so I'm a bit lost. I know 5th year isn't supposed to be fun but I want to do more than use PowerPoint and them taking down notes. Aside from the mandatory experiments how can I make it more fun and interesting?
    I'm doing Volumetric Analysis at the moment.


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    #2
    Urethra Franklin
    Registered Users Posts: 38 ✭Urethra Franklin


    I always found my best teachers to be the ones really enthusiastic about the subject and liked it themselves, showed videos etc even if not specifically on the syllabus!


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    #3
    Inspector Coptoor
    Registered Users Posts: 6,818 ✭✭✭Inspector Coptoor


    Try to start the classes with a hook like a clip or short demo.

    I tend to get quite excited and animated about explaining chemistry topics and the students start to buy into it when you're not just clicking a PowerPoint and going through the motions.


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    #4
    TheDriver
    Registered Users Posts: 12,414 ✭✭✭✭TheDriver


    Don't start with calculations or the mole etc, will bore (excuse the pun) them senseless.


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    #5
    dory
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 4,483 Mod ✭✭✭✭dory


    I know in our school the science teachers go off on tangents bringing in pop-science type things, new developments, explain how what you're doing in the class relates to real life, curing diseases etc. Also show TED talks and things like that that relate to science.


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    #6
    jonseyblub
    Registered Users Posts: 360 ✭✭jonseyblub


    Urethra Franklin wrote: »
    I always found my best teachers to be the ones really enthusiastic about the subject and liked it themselves, showed videos etc even if not specifically on the syllabus!

    Agreed but the LC chemistry course is I find extremely boring to both teach and learn. There is so much emphasis on learning definitions and historical facts instead of hands on activities. Even the practicals tend to repeat themselves (i.e titrations) and extremely difficult to prepare for considering we have so much less extra time due to substitution and supervision.


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    #7
    2011abc
    Registered Users Posts: 1,661 ✭✭✭2011abc


    Urethra Franklin ,I can't believe someone ELSE actually associated The Queen of Soul with the tube leaving the bladder .

    Jonsey I don't think it's THAT bad .


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    #8
    jonseyblub
    Registered Users Posts: 360 ✭✭jonseyblub


    2011abc wrote: »
    Jonsey I don't think it's THAT bad .

    I may have been slightly dramatic :) but there are certain parts that are just so mind numbing. Take for instance Spectroscopy. How boring is that?. Why not get students to identify unknown compounds from the the results (aka CSI type stuff) instead of getting them to know how the machine works!!


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